FG Cancels All Conducted Post-UTME; Orders Refunds To Candidates

The Federal Government of Nigeria has annulled all Post-UTME screening exercises that have been conducted by schools for 2016/2017 admission and has ordered fees paid by candidates to be refunded.

The FG had earlier announced the scrapping of the Post-UTME exercise starting from 2016/17 admission. However, a number of schools have changed the name to several ones as “admission screening”, “Admissions Intelligence Quotient Screening” and the likes.

It has been claimed that the reason and purposes of creating the Post-UTME have been defeated.

The minister of education, Mr. Adamu Adamu in a swift reaction has reminded all tertiary institutions of Goverment’s resolve to see Post-UTME screening becoming a thing of the past.

He said, “Those who have already advertised for the conduct of the post-UTME under any guise should stop the exercise immediately as any university caught conducting it will face appropriate sanctions.

“If any tertiary institution has conducted the post-UTME, such an exercise stands annulled and money taken from candidates must be returned immediately,” Adamu said in a statement.

The Minister added, “For the avoidance of doubt, any educational institution after secondary education is regarded as a tertiary institution. Therefore, all tertiary institutions, polytechnics, colleges of education, universities or by whatever name it is called after secondary education must be subjected to admission through the JAMB.

“At the end of probationary admission by JAMB, the candidates can be cleared (screened) for final admission. For any institution with a shortfall in admission, such institution can revert to JAMB for supplementary admission. Clearing in this case (screening) entails only the verification of certificates of the candidates, JAMB scores, and any other physical examination to ensure that such candidates are not cultists.

“After this, the candidates are qualified for matriculation. Such screening should be at no cost to the parents or students and should be done upon resumption in order to avoid unnecessary travels in search of admission.”

The minister has also summoned all vice-chancellors and rectors to an emergency meeting over the post-UTME.

A lot of Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges want to continue conducting Post-UTME screening but the Minister said, “the responsibility for admission to tertiary institutions lied with JAMB, insisted that “under no circumstance should anybody or institution take over that responsibility by proxy.”